Kennedy Odede ’12

Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO), a grassroots nonprofit organization directed by Kennedy Odede ’12 and Jessica Posner ’09, has been awarded the 2018 Conrad N. Hilton Foundation's Hilton Humanitarian Prize. Selected by a distinguished panel of independent international jurors, SHOFCO will receive $2 million in unrestricted funding, joining 22 other notable organizations that have received the Hilton Humanitarian Prize over the last two decades. Based in Kibera—one of the largest slums in Africa—SHOFCO was founded by Odede as a teenager in 2004 with 20 cents and a soccer ball. The organization describes its mission as catalyzing large-scale transformation in urban slums…

"Kennedy Odede is one of the most joy-filled people I've met," begins David Brooks in his regular New York Times column. On November 10, Brooks turned his column over to Odede '12, who grew up in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya and attended Wesleyan. Together with his wife Jessica Posner Odede '09, Odede created the community organization Shining Hope for Communities (Shofco) and a school for girls in Kibera. Together, they've authored the new book, Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss and Hope in an African Slum. In the column, Odede tells his story in his own words. He describes a tumultuous childhood filled with hunger,…

Wesleyan alumni Jessica Posner '09 and Kennedy Odede '12 appeared on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams on Jan. 17 in a report titled “Couple’s School becomes Lifeline in Kenyan Slum.” Watch the report, hosted by Rock Center Special Correspondent Chelsea Clinton, online here. Posner and Odede are co-founders of Shining Hope for Communities, an organization working to combat gender inequality and extreme poverty in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya. In August 2009, Shining Hope for Communities founded The Kibera School for Girls, the first tuition-free school for girls in Kibera. By providing a superior education, daily nourishment, uniforms, and schools supplies all free of…

Kennedy Odede '12 delivered the Senior Class Welcome during the 180th Commencement Ceremony May 27: Today, I stand before you as the first person from Africa’s largest slum to graduate from an American university. For most of my life, I never imagined that one day I would be standing here. For me, Wesleyan is HOPE. You, the class of 2012, and my time at Wesleyan have changed me forever. I grew up in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, where more than a million people live in an area the size of Central Park—without sewage systems, roads, running water, or…

Kennedy Odede ’12 was featured in a May 5 Hartford Courant article discussing his mother’s impact on all he has done in the last four years. Odede came to Wesleyan from the Kibera slum of Nairobi and has since built a school, a clean water latrine, and a health center back home. "Work hard and read books. Look around you, but don't hate," Jane Achieng Odede told the young son she struggled to feed in Kibera, one of the world's largest slums next to Kenya's capital of Nairobi. Residents there are mostly jobless or live on less than a dollar a day,…

Six Wesleyan students and one alumna spent part of their summer in Nairobi, Kenya as volunteers in Shining Hope for Communities Summer Institute. The institute brings college undergraduates and recent graduates together with students from the Kibera School for Girls. Institute participants provided tutoring and mentoring during the mornings and helped run a summer camp at the school in the afternoon. The volunteers also worked on other Shining Hope projects, including the Johanna Justin-Jinich Community Clinic, a clean water project, toilet access project, community center, and a garden project.Shining Hope for Communities was founded three years ago by Kennedy Odede ’12…

Kennedy Odede ’12 will be a featured panelist at the fourth annual meeting of former President Bill Clinton’s Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), which will be held at the University of California - San Diego on April 1-3. Odede is one of three participants on the panel; the other two are Clinton and actor Sean Penn. “This is very exciting and a tremendous honor for me, and for my foundation, Shining Hope for Communities,” Odede said. The CGI U is part of the former president’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) foundation. According to CGI’s website, CGI U “challenges students (more…)

A student-created health care clinic in Kibera, Kenya, named for Johanna Justin-Jinich, receives grant from Newman’s Own Foundation Last year, two students from Wesleyan founded the first tuition-free school for girls in Kibera, Africa’s largest slum, located in Nairobi, Kenya. This year, they’ve teamed with three more Wesleyan students and medical experts to create a health care clinic on the same site. The Johanna Justin-Jinich Memorial Clinic of Kibera will be the first community-driven clinic in Kibera that specializes in women's health. The student-created Shining Hope for Communities non-profit organization will preside over the clinic’s construction and daily operation. Johanna Justin-Jinich…

SHOFCO Recipient of Hilton Humanitarian Prize

Kennedy Odede ’12 Tells His Story in David Brooks Column

Kenyan School, Founded by Posner ’09, Odede ’12, on NBC Rock Center

Odede ’12: From an African Slum to a Wesleyan Graduate

Odede ’12 Featured in Hartford Courant

Students, Alumna Mentor Children in Summer Institute in Kenya

Odede ’12 Joining Panel with Bill Clinton, Sean Penn

Students to Create Health Care Clinic in Kenya Slum